I bought 'em... hoping to have the rims this week! Any other opinions on fitting the 35's?

 

A couple of thoughts on the 35s...

My Laramie with no lift and 35s actually looked like it had been lowered. It looked like a two wheel drive truck (with really big aggressive tires) because there was so little space between the tire and the fender. A TRX with 35s and no lift would be a little better in that regard.

If you take your truck off road on more than rare occaisions the 35" tires are a huge advantage over 33" tires. They work so much better than 33" tires that it is almost like putting your truck in four wheel drive ... again.

The difference in performance between 33" tires and 35" tires on road with the 3.92 gears is minimal.

With -12 offset wheels the outer edge of the tire is going to lightly rub the back of the inner fender liner when the steering is turned to full lock. The inner fender liner can be fastened up and back farther than the original postion to prevent this tire contact.

MOPWR2U

 

You ARE AWESOME!!!!!!!! I'll take a look at the fender liner... is it obvious how to do this? Do you think there will be any clearance issues with the hardware behind the rim? A-arm etc...

 

i got a question, how does the 35's work better then the 33's if the tread is the exact same??

 

Well this is just one mans opinion, and I suppose part of it depends on where you go four wheeling, but around here (southwest USA) each size increase seems to work better, until you exceed the optimal size for your vehicle.

I've been four wheeling for about 35 years now, and have wheeled a number of different vehicles. I was a trail leader at the easter Jeep Safari in Moab for 13 years, and led their toughest trail (Pritchet Canyon) a couple of times. I even competed in Four Wheeler Magazine's Top Truck Challenge one year (finished second place). For the wheeling we have around here, which has alot of rock ledges that you need to climb, and boulders you need to crawl over in canyon bottoms, 35" tires work much better than 33s. I remember doing the same obstacles on the same trails for years at Moab with 33s on my Jeep, then upgrading to 35s, and it was like someone had downgraded the difficulty ratings on all of the trails. Obstacles that had been all the Jeep could do were now not even a challenge. The taller tire rolls up on top of the ledge instead of spinning against the face of the ledge. A taller tire rolls up and over rocks in canyon bottoms, instead of spinning and trying to get on top of the rock. And that doesn't even include the extra ground clearance, and a longer tire contact patch that puts more rubber on the ground for more traction. A bigger tire can also be aired down to lower pressures than smaller tires. I ran 10 psi with 33s, 8 psi with 35s, and now run 6 psi with the 37s that are on my Jeep.

The same advantages that 35s have over 33s is seen when you put 37s on instead of 35s. But if you go too big on tire size for a small vehicle the vehicle starts getting too tall, too tippy, and doesn't work as well on the vertical obstacles. The limit for functionality with a base wheelbase Jeep is about 35" to 37". Jeeps with 40s may work better in flat canyon bottoms, but when climbing out the canyon sides they can't keep the front tires on the ground. A Jeep with an extended wheelbase, or full width axles is a whole other story though, and they can certainly run even bigger tires. The limit for a pickup truck is also more than 35" to 37", and perhaps more than 40" before they start to get too tall to work well on steep off road terrain. But there are so many other mods that are needed to run 40+s the way they should be ran that the truck looses its street worthiness in a big hurry. 35s on the other hand are easy to fit on a truck, and they make a definite improvement off road without being a big detriment on road.

MOPWR2U

 

I haven't permanently repositioned the inner fender liner on my truck. I have the +18 offset wheels, so my tires are 30 mm farther in than your tires are going to be. Only one side rubs on my truck, so perhaps the assembly line workers didn't put my trucks cab on in the middle of the frame. Anyway, my drivers side tire very lightly rubs the inner fender liner at full left hand turn. I noticed that the inner fender liner can be pushed up and back about two inches, and I pushed mine up and back, and jostled it around a bit, until I heard and felt it kind of snap into place a little higher than before. After that I had no tire rub for about a thousand miles, but the tire rub came back eventually. When I rechecked the fender liner had dropped back down again. I haven't really looked because the tire contact is so minimal, but I'm pretty sure you could fasten that fender liner up higher with a zip tie or something equally simple.

MOPWR2U

 

Thanks again. Wheels say they'll be here Friday.

 

So after all that trouble and the sweet new look I've got goin with the truck; I'm afraid to take the damn thing off road anymore...lol.... As you can see with the small pic I took it through the mud. Well I spent this weekend trying to get all the mud from under the bottom and every nook and cranny it got into. SERIOUS mud! So if anyone knows any public land/trails in the Carolina's please share. Man I miss Oregon now.

P.S. We should sticky this as the most viewed thread EVER. :-)

 

A buddy of mine who goes muddin puts an oscillating lawn sprinkler under his truck and lets it run all night. It gets the mud off. I would hate to see his water bill tho.

 

A set of racin' stripes...